Entrepreneurial Traits and Corporate Models

Entrepreneurial Personal Traits

Strong Need for Achievement (McClelland, 1965)

• Need for accomplishing something important to them.
• Actively seeking out opportunities and taking responsibilities.

Risk-Taking Propensity (Begley and Boyd, 1987)

• Medium, calculated risk-takers.
• Avoid high and low risk situations.
• Ability to evaluate risk on a defined prospect.

Locus of Control (Rotter, 1966)

• Desire to be in control of their own fate.
• High internal LOC.
• The achievement of a goal is dependent on their own behavior.

Tolerance of Ambiguity (Schere, 1982)

• To have an open mind.
• Being responsive to changes.
• No need to know all superficial details.
• To have a flexible attitude.

Desire for Autonomy (Birley and Westhead, 1993)

• High need for independence.
• Smith (1967) noted a fear of external control.

Preference for Innovation

Entrepreneurs seek to do new things or familiar things in new ways (Drucker, 1985; Carland and Carland, 1991; Timmons, 1990).

Characteristics of the Entrepreneurial Mindset

• Passionately seeking new opportunities.
• Pursuing opportunities with enormous discipline.
• Pursuing only the very best opportunities.
• Focusing on execution.
• Engaging everyone's energy in their domain.

Corporate Entrepreneurship Models

Defining Dimensions

• Organizational Ownership: Who within the organization has primary ownership for the creation of new businesses?
• Resource Authority: Is there a dedicated amount of money specifically allocated to corporate entrepreneurship, or are new business concepts funded in an ad hoc manner through existing budgets?

Model 1: The Opportunist Model

Without any specified organizational ownership or resources, intrapreneurship proceeds thanks to the effort and complete initiative of "project champions".

Zimmer Holdings Inc. has R&D organizations that study new product development but no formal organization or dedicated resources for corporate entrepreneurship.

Dana Mears, a trauma surgeon, had an idea for minimally invasive surgery for hip replacements. He presented and explored it informally with Zimmer manager Kevin Gregg.

They got approval for its implementation by the board of directors.

It required innovations in training. The company established the Zimmer Institute, and by 2006, more than 6,000 surgeons were being trained there in a dozen different types of minimally invasive surgical procedures.

• Requirement: High flexibility within the company.

Model 2: The Enabler Model

• The basic premise of the Enabler Model is that employees across an organization will be willing to develop new concepts if they are given adequate support.
• Organizations allow teams to pursue opportunities on their own if they fit the organization’s strategic frame.
• Characteristics: Clear criteria for selecting which opportunities to pursue, application guidelines for funding, decision-making transparency.
• Example: At Google, employees are allowed to spend 20% of their time to promote their ideas to colleagues. If the team believes it has a winner, it appeals to the Google Product Council for funding.